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Freddie Bonfanti

What caught our attention about Freddie Bonfanti is the honesty depicted through his portraits. We caught up with the Italian born, London based photographer to ask him a few questions.

Where do you live? London, UK

How old are you? 30 years old

What do you do? I work as a photographer mainly doing travel and fashion editorials and as film lighting gaffer in the film industry: it’s a pretty sweet deal because there’s a huge variety between the two and i don’t get stuck doing one thing only. I also own a brand new indie skateboarding company with my girlfriend called “Bruiser”, we’re due to launch the firsts series of decks this summer

What is your camera of choice? Depends on the assignment, I like to experiment and play with all of them. At the moment it’s a Pentax 67, an analog dinosaur made way back when that still takes better snaps than any other modern digital nonsense

What was the first photograph you remember taking? A family portrait when I was little on a disposable camera.

How do you choose/find your subjects? What about them stands out to you and makes you notice them amongst everything? A mixture of interesting looks, personality and clothes. Light and background colours are important too. It’s got to be special but subtle, unpretentious, real and most definitely raw

Your portraits have an honesty to them, they feel like a small, but true representation of of the individual. How do you manage this in a culture where everyone is taught to 'put it on' for the camera? People are so used to be ‘on camera’ today yet they freak out if a stranger approaches them on the street for a portrait. It all happens quickly and there’s no time to think and ‘act’ for the camera: I try to press the shutter before the subject feels comfortable, in those 20 seconds of surprise

Who is your hero? and why? Tony Soprano. I miss the big guy. He made me smile